Appeal No. 95-3936
Application 08/135,324
handling portion of the apparatus could be enclosed and
nitrogen flowed inside the chamber (page 5, lines 16 through
20). Finally, the entire exposure process could be conducted
in a nitrogen ambient instead of air, which is conventional
(page 5, line 21 through page 6, line 3).
The above referenced portions of appellants'
disclosure are the entire disclosure relevant to the issue
before us. We reiterate that we find little or no guidance
beyond the two, specifically enumerated expedients, which
would aid the ordinarily skilled routineer in selecting other
suitable media for performing appellants' process. We agree
with examiner's implicit conclusion that it would have
required undue experimentation by the person of ordinary skill
to practice the claimed invention. While appellants argue
that "the use of chemical ambients in conjunction with the
'preventing' step does not involve complex chemical
reactions", the issue before us concerns the scope of the step
of preventing neutralization of the photoacid not the use of
"chemical ambients".
We find no guidance in appellants' disclosure nor
have appellants directed us to any, which would serve as a
starting point for the routineer to even begin a search for
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